The Beetle by Richard Marsh

Presented by The Online Stage

Richard Marsh’s The Beetle outsold Bram Stoker’s Dracula in 1897, the year both novels were published. Like Dracula, The Beetle is about a strange, unearthly being from a foreign land who infiltrates Britain by hypnotizing and preying upon his victims. This exciting adventure is narrated by four different characters who have close encounters with this rapacious creature and attempt to hunt down and destroy him.

Cast:

Robert Holt – Josh Innerst

Sydney Atherton – Jeff Moon

Marjorie Lindon – Elizabeth Klett

Augustus Champnell – Rob Goll

The Arab – Peter Tucker

Paul Lessingham – David Prickett

Percy Woodville – Tyler Hyrchuk

Dora Grayling – Amanda Friday

Matthews – Andrew Coleman

Old Lindon – Denis Daly

Audio edited by Elizabeth Klett

Amazon/Audible • iTunes

The Online Stage presents The Green Cockatoo by Arthur Schnitzler.

The Green Cockatoo is a short play set in a busy tavern on the night of the storming of the Bastille. Rich Parisian nobles come to watch some actors play at being rogues, thieves, and other criminals, but they quickly find reality and fantasy blending together in the most alarming of ways.

Cast:

Stage Directions – Linda Barrans

Prosper – Phil Benson

Emile – Tomas Peter

François – Tom Saer

Albin – Mark Crowle-Groves

Marquis de Lansac – Alan Weyman

Severine – Sarah Mitchell

Rollin – Lance Rasmussen

Grasset – David Prickett

Lebret – Peter Tucker

Grain – Blythe Melin

The Commissaire of Police – Craig Franklin

Henri – Andy Harrington

Leocadie – P. J. Morgan

Scaevola – David Stifel

Jules – Andrew Coleman

Michette –  Anna Grace

Flipotte – Amanda Friday

Guillaume – Graham Scott

Georgette – Leanne Yau

Balthasar – Ted Wenskus

Maurice –  Noel Badrian

Etienne – Marty Krz

Audio edited by Anna Grace

Amazon/Audible • iTunes

In January 1817, Jane Austen began work on Sanditon, but died a few months later, leaving it unfinished. The surviving fragment begins the story of Charlotte Heywood, a sheltered young woman who is invited to the up-and-coming resort town of Sanditon.  

While there, she meets a host of memorable characters, drawn with Austen’s classic wit and insight, including a fortune-hunting fop, a domineering dowager, and a hoard of hypochondriacs.  

This full-cast production features Austen’s original text.    

Cast: 

Narrator: PJ Morgan 

Mr. Parker: Rob Goll  

Mr. Heywood: Peter Tucker  

Charlotte Heywood/Mary Parker: Leanne Yau  

Mrs. Parker: Sarah Mitchell  

Diana Parker: Libby Stephenson  

Lady Denham: Linda Barrans  

Sir Edward: Andy Harrington  

Arthur Parker: Russell Gold    

Audio edited by Libby Stevenson

Amazon/Audible • iTunes

Old Friends and New Fancies: An Imaginary Sequel to the Novels of Jane Austen, by Sybil Brinton. Presented by the Online Stage.

Old Friends and New Fancies is the first ever Jane Austen fan fiction and was originally published in 1913. Sybil Brinton imagines an entirely new story of romantic entanglements using a mashup of characters from all of Austen’s major novels. Have you ever wondered what happened to Georgiana Darcy and Kitty Bennet from Pride and Prejudice or Mary Crawford and Tom Bertram from Mansfield Park? Find out in this delightfully comic homage to Austen’s beloved characters.

Cast:

Georgiana Darcy: Becca Maggie

Mr. Darcy: David Shears

Elizabeth Darcy: Arielle Lipshaw

Jane Bingley/Anne Wentworth: PJ Morgan

Elinor Ferrars/Mrs. Hurst/Lucy Ferrars: Anna Grace

Miss Bingley/Anne Steele: Tiffany Halla Colonna

Colonel Fitzwilliam: Rob Goll

Mary Crawford: Amanda Friday

James Morland/Mr. Knightley: Andy Harrington

Lady Catherine de Bough/Mrs. Jennings: Sara Morsey

Sir Walter Elliot/Mr. Bennet: Peter Tucker

Emma Knightley/Mrs. Grant: Elizabeth Chambers

Tom Bertram/Mr. Yates: Jeff Moon

Mr. Bingley/Captain Wentworth: Russell Gold

William Price: Mark Crowle-Groves

Kitty Bennet: Leanne Yau

Narrator: Elizabeth Klett

Audio edited by Elizabeth Klett

Amazon/Audible • iTunes

In this moody Russian drama, Ivanov is a melancholic impoverished landowner whose wife is dying of tuberculosis. However, he finds himself irresistibly drawn to the beautiful Sasha, the daughter of his wealthy neighbors. Augmented by a diverse array of colorful supporting characters and intrigues, this play provides a glimpse of master dramatist Anton Chekhov’s early work.

Ivanov: Rob Goll

Borkin/George: Peter Tucker

Anna/Second Guest: Elizabeth Klett

Shabelski: Ron Altman

Dr. Lvoff/Third Guest: Jeff Moon

Zinaida: Sara Morsey

Martha: Kristin Gjerlow

Kosich: Denis Daly

Avdotia: Linda Barrans

First Guest: Russell Gold

Lebedieff: Ben Stevens

Sasha: Amanda Friday

Narrator: Trisha Rose

Audio edited by Elizabeth Klett

Amazon/Audible • iTunes

The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame. Presented by the Online Stage.

The Wind in the Willows, first published in 1908, is one of the most beloved of all children’s classics and has been adapted on multiple occasions for presentation on stage, in film, and as an opera.

The action centers on the efforts of Mole, Rat, and Badger to discipline and reform their wealthy and self-destructive friend Toad, who lives in a splendid mansion known as Toad Hall.

Much of the charm of the narrative lies in the vivid descriptions of the natural habitat of the various animal characters.

Cast:

• Narrator – Sarah Bacaller
• Mole – Rob Goll
• Rat – Graham Scott
• Toad – David Shears
• Badger – Ron Altman
• Otter – Mark Crowle-Groves
• Gaoler’s Daughter – Anna Grace
• Sea Rat – Ben Stevens
• Barge Woman – Linda Barrans
• Additional voices provided by Trisha Rose, Christianne Lupher, P J Morgan, Alan Weyman, Phil Benson, Peter Tucker, Leanne Yau, and Denis Daly.

Audio edited by Denis Daly.

Amazon/Audible • iTunes

This play deals with an incident which occurred early in the history of the colony of New South Wales, Australia – the so-called “Rum Rebellion”.

New South Wales struggled as a new British penal colony, facing drought, famine, social incoherence, and the development of an intransigent military cartel which did not lose any opportunity to exploit the circumstances. Together with an entrepreneurial landowner society led by John Macarthur, they made the task of the Governor, William Bligh (of The Bounty) very difficult. The resulting crescendo of conflict boiled over into Australia’s only military coup, in which the full forces of the New South Wales Corps marched up and arrested Bligh, holding him under house arrest for a year before allowing him to set sail from Sydney Harbour.

The stage play has an indigenous narrator, the bemused and somewhat indignant Tedbury, whose contact with the invading community does not end well.

As far as possible, the play respects actual historical facts and attempts to illustrate a recurring pattern of conflicts and motivations of individuals in power recognizable even in the present day. 

Narration by Sarah Bacaller

Roles performed by Peter Tucker, David Prickett, Alan Weyman, Elizabeth Chambers, Amanda Friday, Phil Benson, Graham Scott, Denis Daly, Graham Scott, Mark Crowle-Groves, Noel Badrian, Craig Franklin, and Andrew Coleman.

Sound effects were produced by Peter Tucker. Additional sounds provided by julius_galla, Kyle Arkisto, Miastodzwiekow, Bosk1m, Tomattka and Plantmonkey.

Music

All music composed and arranged by Unread Pages.

Introduction

“Bligh’s Hornpipe” by Peter Tucker (with quotes from “Rule Brittania” (Trad.) and “Radetzky March” (Johann Strauss Snr))

Music for revolution scene and interval

“British Grenadiers” (Trad.)

Closing music

“Macarthur’s Woolshed” by Peter Tucker

Audio edited by Peter Tucker.

Amazon/Audible • iTunes

Saint Joan

by George Bernard Shaw

Presented by The Online Stage

According to George Bernard Shaw, Joan of Arc was in fact one of the first Protestant martyrs. She was one of the first apostles of nationalism, and the first French practitioner of Napoleonic realism in warfare. She also refused to accept the specific woman’s lot, and dressed and fought and lived as men did.

Shaw’s exploration of the story of this ingenious and eponymous heroine is set in six scenes and an epilogue, which takes place on 1456, when the church cleared Joan of the charge of heresy and condemned her accusers of corruption.

The ghost of Joan appears and, later, an emissary from the year 1920, to announce Joan’s canonization.

This production also includes a very condensed version of Shaw’s lengthy preface.

Cast:

Narrator and Duchess de la Trémouille – Anna Grace
Robert de Baudricourt, Sentry and Courcelles – Graham Scott
Joan – Amanda Friday
Bertrand, D’Estivet and Gentleman – Jeff Moon
Archbishop and First Assessor – David Stifel
De la Trémouille, John de Stogumber and Executioner – Denis Daly
Steward and Warwick – Alan Weyman
La Hire, Second Assessor and English Soldier – Phil Benson
Bluebeard and Ladvenu – David Shears
Charles (Dauphin) – Tom Saer
Dunois and Third Assessor – Andy Harrington
Cauchon – Peter Tucker
Inquisitor – Noel Badrian
Page – Sarah Bacaller
Audio edited by Denis Daly

Amazon/Audible • iTunes

Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw: Presented by The Online Stage.

In Biography for Beginners, a collection of sarcastic quatrains about various celebrities, Edmund Clerihew Bentley wrote:

Mr. Bernard Shaw was just setting out for the war when he heard it was a dangerous trade and demonstrably underpaid.

This rather unkind stanza is illustrative of Shaw’s convenient pacifism, which forms the major theme of this play. For Shaw, the war was an anachronistic form of barbarism – in his view, people ought to be able to resolve their differences through intelligent and spirited discourse.

The action of the play, which occurs during a conflict in the Balkans, is initiated by the discovery by Raina, the daughter of a military officer, of a man who has taken refuge in her bedroom. Unfortunately, the man belongs to the opposing army. How will she deal with a notional enemy who behaves with such quixotic courtesy?

Cast

Narrator – Noel Badrian
Captain Bluntschli – Rob Goll
Major Petkoff – Peter Tucker
Officer/ Major Sergius Saranoff – Jeff Moon
Catherine Petkoff – Sarah Mitchell
Nicola – Craig Franklin
Raina Petkoff – Amanda Friday
Louka – Anna Grace

Audio edited by Denis Daly

Amazon/Audible • iTunes

Presented by The Online Stage

Sylvie and Bruno was the last novel completed by Lewis Carroll and was published in two parts. The first volume, which is the subject of this recording, appeared in 1889.

The story is presented by an unnamed narrator, who oscillates between two worlds: a fantasy fairyland, populated by characters similar to those in Alice in Wonderland, and the real world environs of a small village by the sea, in which the narrator has taken up temporary residence for health reasons.

The main characters are Sylvie and Bruno, fairies who are sister and brother, and Arthur Forrester and Lady Muriel Orme, who are romantically linked.

The book contains episodes which recall the hectic nonsense of Carroll’s best-known work, but also serious commentary on many social and religious issues. Because of its unusual structure and a strong tendency toward Victorian sentimentality, the work has not been held in high regard. However, it is of particular interest in that it reveals much more about the author and his attitudes than do his more popular works.

Cast

Noel Badrian – Narrator

Leanne Yau – Bruno

Becca Maggie – Sylvie

Graham Scott – Arthur Forrester

Elizabeth Klett – Lady Muriel Orme

Peter Tucker – Warden

Mark Crowle-Groves – Chancellor and Eric Lindon

Ron Altman – The Professor

Ben Stevens – The Other Professor

Denis Daly – Earl of Ainslie

Alan Weyman – Gardener

Craig Franklin – Sub-Warden

Linda Barrans – Sub-Warden’s Wife

Also featuring the voices of Amanda Friday, Andrew Coleman, David Stifel, Grace Keller Scotch, Phil Benson, and Sarah Mitchell.

Audio edited by Denis Daly

Amazon/Audible • iTunes

Hedda Gabler, a play in four acts by Henrik Ibsen, was published in 1890. The first production in English was in April 1891 in London. The title role of Hedda is considered one of the great dramatic roles in theatre.

Hedda and George Tesman have just returned from their six-month honeymoon tour of the Tyrol. George, a studious and somewhat dull academic has spent most of the time continuing his research. Hedda, the daughter of the celebrated, aristocratic General Gabler, recently deceased, has been accustomed to the finer things in life. She is already bored in her marriage and diverts herself with her father’s pistols and the attentions of family friend, Judge Brack.

The Tesman’s future prosperity rests on the promise of a university appointment for George, but the arrival of Eilert Lovborg, a former admirer of Hedda, and a competitor for Tesman’s academic position throws a shadow of uncertainty over this appointment. Prompted by jealousy of an old schoolfriend and her desire to have power over a human destiny, Hedda embarks upon a course of actions with tragic consequences.

Cast:

Hedda Tesman – Anna Grace
George Tesman – Rob Goll
Juliana Tesman – Sarah Mitchell
Mrs Elvsted – Amanda Friday
Judge Brack – Marty Krz
Eilert Lovborg – Peter Tucker
Berta – Elizabeth Klett
Stage Directions read by Grace Garrett

Audio edited by Rob Goll

Amazon/Audible • iTunes

Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
Translated from the Italian by Carol Della Chiesa
Presented by The Online Stage

Carlo Collodi’s whimsical recasting of the myth of Pygmalion and Galatea was first published in 1883 and has since become an established classic of children’s literature. Geppetto, a poor wood carver, receives a piece of wood from which he carves a marionette. Much to his surprise, the puppet springs to life and embarks on a wild series of adventures.

Cast

Narrator – Michelle Marie

Pinocchio – Becca Maggie

Geppetto – Denis Daly

The Fairy – Amanda Friday

Also featuring the voices of Andrew Coleman, Andy Harrington, Ben Lindsey-Clark, Ben Stevens, Chyanne Donnell, Craig Franklin, Elizabeth Chambers, Erin Grassie, Grace Garrett, Griffin Johnson, Isabelle Friday, Jeff Moon, John Burlinson, Joseph Tabler, Larry Wilson, Leanne Yau, Lee Ann Howlett, Marty Krz, Peter Tucker, Phil Benson, Rob Goll, Russell Gold, Sara Sheckells and Susan Iannucci.

Audio edited by Amanda Friday and Denis Daly

Amazon/Audible • iTunes